So we don't find a fossil record of animals that adapted in the wrong way, you claim they are all eaten?! But we find a fossil record of animals that adapted correctly.
That is hard to believe.
Second, there's no such thing as "right direction." Species adapt to survive in their environment. If the environment changes, then the species must either change or die out. To adapt incorrectly is to disappear.
First, there is adaptation in the right direction and the wrong direction, if evolution is random. If a species that moves to a colder climate grows additional fur to stay warm, that is adaptation in the right direction. If a species that moves to a colder climate loses its fur, that is adaptation in the wrong direction.
If animals only adapt in the right direction, it proves intelligent design....that there is a mechanism that causes species to adapt in the right direction.
If the species adapts in the wrong direction, we should find evidence of it in the fossil records. We don't. All we find is evidence of species that adapted in the right direction.
If you want to believe that all those who adapted in the wrong direction were eaten and only those who adapted in the right direction ended up in the fossil record then you simply don't understand the argument.
"If the species adapts in the wrong direction, we should find evidence of it in the fossil records. We don't. All we find is evidence of species that adapted in the right direction."
Erik, I get the sense that you are actually trying to think logically, and that you're not used to it, and that it's tough for you.
So, if I dance logical circles around your argument, how are you going respond? Can you maintain your logical facade, or will you just blow up, like some of our other posters?
Well, here goes:
Evolution 101: in every generation are born some with minor physical changes.
Some of these changes are neutral, and neither benefit nor harm the individual.
Many of the changes are harmful, and those individuals do not survive as well.
A small number of changes benefit the individual, who then survives to pass the changed genes on to the next generation.
In your example, an animal which moves north from a warmer to colder climate will have some offspring with shorter hair and some with longer hair. The shorter haired will not survive as well, the longer haired will survive better. In due time, over many generations, the longer hair and other cold adaptive changes will add up to a new species.
Time marches on, now the climate changes again, warming up quickly this time, and now our longer haired animals find themselves "adapted the wrong way," and become extinct. They are then replaced in the fossil record by their shorter haired cousins, who never left the warmer climate.
This is basic evolutionary theory. What is your problem with it?
If the species adapts in the wrong direction, we should find evidence of it in the fossil records. We don't. All we find is evidence of species that adapted in the right direction.
Well, species that did not adapt have indeed gone extinct. That's the fate of 99% of all species ever to have lived and they comprises most of the fossil record.
So you are factually wrong. The remains of failed species are commonplace.